Offensive Security has released BackTrack 5 R3, an updated version of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools: "The time has come to refresh our security tool arsenal - BackTrack 5 R3 has been released. R3 focuses on bug fixes as well as the addition of over 60 new tools – several of which were released in BlackHat and Defcon 2012. A whole new tool category was populated - 'Physical Exploitation', which now includes tools such as the Arduino IDE and libraries, as well as the Kautilya Teensy payload collection. Together with our usual KDE and GNOME, 32/64-bit ISO images, we have released a single VMware Image (GNOME, 32-bit)." Here is the full release announcement. Download: BT5R3-GNOME-32.iso (3,142MB, MD5, torrent), BT5R3-KDE-32.iso (3,172MB, MD5, torrent), BT5R3-GNOME-64.iso (3,153MB, MD5, torrent), BT5R3-KDE-64.iso (3,194MB, MD5, torrent).

Kali Linux (formerly known as BackTrack) is a Debian-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools. It features timely security updates, support for the ARM architecture, a choice of four popular desktop environments, and seamless upgrades to newer versions.

Mati Aharoni has announced the release of Kali Linux 1.1.0, a point release of the project's Debian-based distribution with specialist software tools for penetration testing and forensic analysis: "After almost two years of public development (and another year behind the scenes), we are proud to announce our first point release of Kali Linux - version 1.1.0. This release brings with it a mix of unprecedented hardware support as well as rock-solid stability. For us, this is a real milestone as this release epitomizes the benefits of our move from BackTrack to Kali Linux over two years ago. As we look at a now mature Kali, we see a versatile, flexible Linux distribution, rich with useful security and penetration testing related features, running on all sorts of weird and wonderful ARM hardware. But enough talk, here are the goods: the new release runs a 3.18 kernel, patched for wireless injection attacks; our ISO build systems are now running off live-build 4.x...." Read the rest of the release announcement for upgrade instructions and to see a promotional video. Download (SHA1): kali-linux-1.1.0-amd64.iso (2,908MB, pkglist).

Mati Aharoni has announced the release of Kali Linux 1.0.9, a bug-fix update of the Debian-based distribution designed primarily for penetration testing and forensic analysis tasks: "Now that we have caught our breath after the Black Hat and DEF CON conferences, we have put aside some time to fix an annoying bug in our 1.0.8 ISO releases related to outdated firmware as well as regenerate fresh new ARM and VMware images (courtesy of Offensive Security) for our new 1.0.9 release. With this release come a few more updates worth mentioning. We are pleased to announce that we have updated our Raspberry Pi Kali image to support the new B+ model so that now it works out of the box. This single image now supports all Raspberry Pi models. We have also included two more images to our Kali ARM image collection for the Odroid U3 and Cubox-i ARM computers." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information and to learn about the new Kali tools website. Download (SHA1): kali-linux-1.0.9-amd64.iso (2,888MB, pkglist).

Mati Aharoni has announced the release of Kali Linux 1.0.8, a minor update of the project's Debian-based distribution with specialist tools for penetration testing and forensic analysis: "The long awaited Kali Linux USB EFI boot support feature has been added to our binary ISO builds, which has prompted this early Kali Linux 1.0.8 release. This new feature simplifies getting Kali installed and running on more recent hardware which requires EFI as well as various Apple MacBook Air and Retina models. Besides the addition of EFI support, there is a whole array of tool updates and fixes that have accumulated over the past couple of months. As this new release focuses almost entirely on the EFI capable ISO image, Offensive Security won't be releasing additional ARM or VMWare images with 1.0.8. As usual, you don't need to re-download Kali if you've got it installed, and apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade should do the job." Read the rest of the release announcement for further information. Download (SHA1): kali-linux-1.0.8-amd64.iso (3,037MB, pkglist).

Mati Aharoni has announced the release of Kali Linux 1.0.7, the latest update of the specialist distribution designed for penetration testing and forensic analysis: "Kali linux 1.0.7 has just been released, complete with a whole bunch of tool updates, a new kernel, and some cool new features. Check out our changelog for a full list of these items. One of the new sought-out features introduced (which is also partially responsible for the kernel update) is the ability to create Kali Linux live USB with LUKS encrypted persistence. This feature ushers in a new era of secure Kali Linux USB portability, allowing us to either boot to a 'clean' Kali image or alternatively, overlay it with the contents of a persistent encrypted partition, all within the same USB drive." Read the release announcement for more information and upgrade instructions. Download: kali-linux-1.0.7-amd64.iso (2,820MB, SHA1, torrent).

Mati Aharoni has announced the release of Kali Linux 1.0.6, an updated version of the project's Debian-based distribution with a large collection of tools for penetration testing and forensic analysis: "Kali Linux 1.0.6 released. It has been a while since our last minor release which makes 1.0.6 a more significant update than usual. With a new 3.12 kernel, a LUKS nuke feature, new Kali ARM build scripts, and Kali AMAZON AMI and Google Compute image generation scripts, not to mention numerous tool additions and updates – this release is really heavily laden with goodness. This new release brings with it the introduction of the Offensive Security Trusted ARM image scripts – a set of slowly growing scripts that are able to build Kali Linux images for various ARM devices. These scripts will replace the growing number of actual ARM image releases we have in order to reduce the exponentially growing amount of traffic we serve on each release." See the detailed release announcement for more information and useful links. Download: kali-linux-1.0.6-amd64.iso (2,993MB, SHA1, torrent).

Devon Kearns has announced the release of Kali Linux 1.0.4, an updated version of the Debian-based distribution (formerly known as BackTrack Linux) that features an extensive collection of security and forensics tools: "In keeping with our tradition of publishing new releases during the annual Black Hat and DEF CON conferences, we are pleased to announce the availability of Kali Linux 1.0.4. The last few months since the initial release of Kali have seen a large number of changes, upgrades, and improvements in the distribution, all of which are included in version 1.0.4. Thanks to numerous requests from the Kali Linux community on the Kali Bug Tracker, we have added many new tools to Kali’s arsenal. Our quest to get Kali Linux running on popular ARM hardware is going strong and our trusted contributor, Offensive Security, has provided new ARM images for the BeagleBone Black, CuBox and Efika MX to our growing collection." Read the release announcement for further details. Download: kali-linux-1.0.4-amd64.iso (2,345MB, SHA1, torrent).

Offensive Security has announced the release of Kali Linux 1.0, a Debian-based distribution with a collection of security tools for forensic analysis and penetration testing. This is a major new update of the project's flagship distribution formerly known as BackTrack (based on Ubuntu). From the release announcement: "After a year of silent development, Offensive Security is proud to announce the release and public availability of 'Kali Linux', the most advanced, robust, and stable penetration-testing distribution to date. Kali is a more mature, secure, and enterprise-ready version of BackTrack. Trying to list all the new features and possibilities that are now available in Kali would be an impossible task on this single page. We therefore invite you to visit our new Kali Linux website and Kali Linux documentation site to experience the goodness of Kali for yourself." Quick download link: kali-linux-1.0-amd64.iso (2,088MB, SHA1, torrent).

The second revision of BackTrack 5, an Ubuntu-based distribution with a collection of tools for penetration testing and ethical hacking, has been released: "After months of development, bug fixes, upgrades, and the addition of 42 new tools, we are happy to announce that the full release of BackTrack 5 R2 available for download now. Running our custom-built 3.2.6 kernel with the best wireless support available, this is our fastest and best release of BackTrack yet. In the past few weeks, we have had a flood of submissions to our BackTrack Redmine tracker with submissions for many new tools and dozens of packages that needed to be updated and this has helped to make this one of the strongest releases we've ever had." Here is the full release announcement. Download links: BT5R2-GNOME-32.iso (2,588MB, MD5, torrent), BT5R2-KDE-32.iso (2,673MB, MD5, torrent), BT5R2-GNOME-64.iso (2,634MB, MD5, torrent), BT5R2-KDE-64.iso (2,681MB, MD5, torrent).